Yannick nodded, "I'm your father, Lee," he said softly, "Kill me, please…"

Somewhere I Belong
Chapter 16
Parting is such bitter sorrow
By: Miguela

"Fa-father?" Heero asked in confusion as he clicked the safety back on his gun as a habit and stuck it back in his holster, "But why?"

"Because I have the implant," Yannick said simply, "Deikim has been controlling me since I gave you up. He knew that my mind-controlling software could be put to use. I put a back door into it that in case he used it against me, I wouldn't be able to hurt you. I can see he's perfected it since he started using me as his puppet."

"So all this time, you never told me?" Heero was starting to get angrier the more the conversation progressed, "You knew all along that I had family but you didn't tell me?"

"Believe me, I had no choice in the matter," Yannick said desperately, "Lee, the chip is completely fused with me now, it can't be removed. Chang Wufei and Quatre Winner will be okay, but we have to destroy this colony. This is where the software is, it needs to be destroyed."

Heero checked the timer on the self-detonation as he went to his father, "We still have a minute and a half left, we can get out on time," Heero said as he slung his father's arm around his shoulders, "We can still make it if we leave now."

Yannick shook his head. The older Japanese man pushed away from Heero's help and stumbled slightly to one of the consoles. "You need to get out of here," Yannick said, "Listen to me Lee; it's too late to save me. I want you to get out of here alive. I don't want you to die pointlessly here, do you understand me? Your mother gave her life giving birth to you, and I will give mine so that you make it out of this wretched place alive. You have less than a minute now, so go. I'll see if I can slow the destruction of this place." Heero looked askance of his father but he was stern, "Go Lee, we have less than a minute now," Yannick said firmly. Blood dripped down his arm steadily. "The blast will come from this room, so you just might be able to escape it unharmed." He gripped Heero's shoulder firmly and shoved him in the direction of the door, "I'm not going to ask again, Lee, now go!"

Heero was thrown out of the room and the door slid shut in front of him. "No, Yannick!" Heero called as he pushed off the wall and went back to the door, "Yannick, open the door, the both of us can still escape!"

Duo's voice came over the com link in his helmet, "Lee, we have to get out of here!" he said desperately, "What are you still fooling around for, we have to leave, now!"

He pressed the button close to his temple on the helmet to reply, "Duo, I can't leave him," he said desperately as he banged on the door.

"Heero, what would Relena say to you if she heard you talking like this?" Duo demanded angrily through the com link, "Get your ass in the ship so we can leave before this whole colony blows!"

Heero gasped as a small explosion rang out, sending small bits of shrapnel to dig into his right arm. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath as he gripped the little bits of glass and metal that had embedded in his arm. "Father, please, just come with me!"

"Good bye, Lee," he heard a faint voice from behind the thick metal door. "Marry that girl you're so fond of…"

Another explosion rang out and jerked Heero back into the wall, causing him to bash his head off the wall. Slightly dazed, Heero pushed off the wall, stealing one last glace backwards at the steel door that had separated him from his father, whom he had known but briefly. Smaller explosions were ringing out now all around him as the primary sub systems started to detonate. He started to pull himself along the corridors to bring him back to where they had docked the shuttle.

"Duo, are you guys ready to leave?" Heero asked and winced as a large piece of metal embedded itself in his leg.

"Get your ass in here and we can leave," Duo said to him urgently.

Heero felt another large piece of shrapnel enter his side and tried to move faster. He could see the shuttle dock now, just a little more… A large explosion rang out, coming from the center of the colony and spreading outward. Heero swung himself around and took out his gun, and fired a bullet so the recoil would propel him faster than his arms would. He shot into the shuttle and collided with the communication console. The door slammed shut behind him and Duo undocked from the colony.

"Hang on!" Duo yelled as he slammed on the propulsion system which shot the three of them away from the colony at break neck speed.

Heero gazed at the colony as it exploded, sending shrapnel at their shuttle. He gripped the console he had slammed into and held on as the shuttle rode the shockwave for a short way before the engines cut and they were drifting. Heero sighed as he sank down into the chair that had been previously occupied by Wufei on their trip to the now destroyed colony and put his head in his hands.

God damn it all, he thought bitterly, Just a few inches, it wasn't far, and I could've saved him. Why is that I can never save the people that I wanted to save the most? I couldn't save him…

He heard foot steps behind him but he didn't bother to look over to see who it was. "Lee?" Duo asked quietly, "Hey man, looks like we might be stuck out here for a while. The engine was busted in that explosion. Could you radio back to L2 and ask if they could send someone to pick us up."

"Yeah, sure," Heero muttered as he removed his helmet. His right arm, left thigh and right side were bleeding profusely, though Duo seemed to have enough sense not to ask if he was okay. Heero put the call through, requesting an ambulance for Wufei be prepared. He thought that that he would need an ambulance as well with the way he was loosing blood. He looked down at his arm and started to pick out the shrapnel. "Duo, could you get me the first aid kit?" Heero asked in his monotone.

"Uh, sure," Duo replied as he went to the front of the shuttle and returned with the little kit. "Man, do you want some help? You're bleedin'"

Heero shrugged as he set the pieces of shrapnel aside that he had picked out of his shoulder. His thoughts were racing, trying to remember the man he knew briefly as Yannick Kodora, his father. He vaguely remembered a man trailing after Deikim Barton, who strutted around the lab as though he were king, and demanded that Heero complete several difficult scenarios. He was about the same height that Heero was now, shaggy brown hair and vague blue eyes. Heero sighed quietly to himself, Deikim had him even then, he realized as he started to clean out his arm with disinfectant.

Heero was so deep in his own thoughts that he didn't realize that Duo had started to clean his leg until Duo gripped the shrapnel and jerked it out of his leg. Heero stiffened in surprised and gasped slightly as Duo set the piece aside. "Man, that thing was in there a ways," Duo exclaimed as he pressed bandages to his friend's leg. "You're looking a little pale, Lee."

"It's nothing," Heero replied as he stripped off his space suit and started to bandage his shoulder. "I'll call back to L2 and find out where the shuttle is."

Duo frowned but shrugged, "Still as stubborn as ever," he muttered as he went to go and check on Wufei.

Heero removed the remaining shrapnel, bandaged the wounds, and pulled on another space suit, one that didn't have any holes, and relaxed. He thought back about his father and that set his mind to drifting back over every mission he had, every person he had killed, every person he missed…

"Heero!" Duo screamed in his ear, making him jerk and nearly slide out of his seat.

"What?" Heero asked in irritation as he glared at his friend and rubbed his ear, "You didn't need to scream you know."

"Man, I've been trying to talk to you for the last twenty minutes," Duo said in a huff. "The shuttle radioed while you were lost in thought and said that they would be here in about an hour, which is probably another 40 minutes since I've been screaming at you."

"And why didn't you just shake me like you usually do?" Heero muttered as he sat back in his seat and checked the radar.

"Because I was afraid you were going to bite me or something," Duo muttered, "You were snarling."

Heero leaned back in his chair and watched the radar for the remaining time he was stuck in the little ship with Wufei and Duo. The air on the ship was getting thinner as their systems started to shut down. Heero helped Duo get Wufei into a suit, though the two of them ended up bashing Wufei's head off the control boards quite a few times, though Heero wasn't sure if Duo was doing it by accident or on purpose. He winced every time a piece of stray shrapnel collided with the ship and jarred the occupants. Duo was starting to go crazy when a shuttle from the Preventers base on L2. Sally Poe was onboard and she smirked as she and four other Preventers boarded the small shuttle.

"What did you three get yourselves into?" she asked them as she looked at Heero. "Lee, you're as pale as a ghost, what happened?"

Heero gestured to the pile of pieces of shrapnel that was floating close by. "The colony has been destroyed," Heero informed her, "I need to speak to Lady Une on the matter." He unbuckled himself from the chair and floated up out of the seat. "Take a look at Wufei and get that little chip out of him."

Two of the Preventers' officers came to Heero's aid but he waved them off, "Take Chang Wufei," he said to them, "I'll meet you guys in the air lock on the other shuttle."

"Lee Kodora, you're just as stubborn as ever," he heard a familiar voice scold him. Relena came into the ship, followed by two Preventers' guards.

They saluted Sally when they boarded the ship and sent dirty looks at Relena, "She slipped by us Ma'am, sorry," one of them explained to Sally.

Relena went to Heero and took his shoulders, making Heero wince slightly as she gripped his injured shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me that you were going on a mission?" Relena demanded, "You could've gotten hurt or killed, and you didn't even tell me?"

"Now isn't a good time, Relena," Heero said to her gruffly as he removed her hand from his sore shoulder, "I thought you had meetings to attend?"

"I couldn't go to meetings with old farts while you were out here risking your life," Relena said to him impatiently, "Duo said that you were hurt and I came with Sally to see for myself why you would do something so idiotic as staying inside a colony that was going to self destruct."

Heero stole a glace at Duo and gave him a fierce glare as he took Relena's shoulders gently, "Relena, I'm not sure what happened on that colony, but once I figure it out for myself, I'll see if I can explain it to you," he said to her gently, "Now, I need to talk to Lady Une and I need to do some research."

Sally gathered the pieces of shrapnel that Heero had removed by himself and put them in a bag to be analyzed. The other Preventers helped Duo and Wufei board the other ship. Heero gazed in the direction of where the colony had been destroyed and Relena wrapped her arm around his waist.

"Lee, you're pale," Relena said to him softly, "What happened to you?"

"I'll explain that once we get to the shuttle," he said to her gently though he let her direct him to the shuttle. He was too engrossed in his own thoughts to float in a straight line.

They entered the airlock chamber, where air flooded the space once the doors were closed and the occupants were able to remove their helmets.

"Let me take a look at you, Lee," Sally said to him gently as Relena steered him to the closest seat to the door and sat him down as she sat beside him. Heero didn't fight her as Sally and Relena stripped the suit down to his waist. Sally sighed quietly over the impromptu bandaging job he had done on his side and his shoulder. "You did a pretty good job though," she said as she started to peel away the temporary bandages and stitch up the deep wounds. She washed away the blood from his wound and Heero started to tremble uncontrollably.

What's the matter with me? Heero thought in frustration as Relena gripped his hand tightly, Why am I shaking so much?

Sally gripped his shoulders and forced the seat back so Heero could lean back. "Rest," she said to him firmly, "Relena, make sure that he doesn't get up."

Heero brought a shaking hand up before his eyes and watched his fingers twitch uncontrollably, "Why?" he asked quietly, "I was fine for an hour, why now?"

"Maybe because you lost so much blood," Duo said sarcastically as he sorted through the end of his braid. "You were just sitting there bleeding when you got in the shuttle. What were you going on about earlier anyway? Who is Yannick and why did you call him 'father'?"

"It's a long story Duo," Heero muttered as he balled his shaking hand into a fist and set it down on the arm rest, "I'll tell you when the world stops spinning."

He felt a gentle hand press to his forehead, which increased his dizziness momentarily and Relena gasped in alarm. "He's burning up," she said in worry, "Sally, his temperature spiked."

He gripped her hand and pulled it away from his face as he closed his eyes, "I just need some sleep," he said to her gently, "I'll be fine in the morning." His hand shook as it gripped Relena's slender fingers.

"Sally, he's delirious," Relena said in worry as a cold cloth was placed on his face and a second one was placed on his neck. "What should we do? He's lost so much blood, and he's so pale…"

Heero fell unconscious in the shuttle with Relena's hand gripped tightly.

No one like my last chapter:( I really need reviews people, I'm almost done this story, maybe another 2 chapters or so to go, but I need your input